Stress blog

Focus, discipline and flexibility will take you far

The eyes of the sporting world will be focused on Indianapolis, Indiana, on February 5, 2012. This is the annual Super Bowl, the culmination of 10 months of contests among American professional football teams. It's the pinnacle of success to win the Super Bowl.

The teams in this contest are evenly matched. Both are battle-tested. Most experts point to three factors that will determine who will win the game:

Focus. It's very easy for players to become distracted with the endless demands on their time and energy for interviews, requests for tickets, and personal appearances. The players who lose their focus are doomed.

Discipline. This means concentrating on the fundamentals of the game and executing the plays that got them to the championship.

Flexibility. This means the ability to adapt and change in the face of adversity.

Most of us are not athletes and will never make it to the Super Bowl, but these three rules are just as valid outside of the sports stadium. There are no guarantees in life and each of us will face challenges and struggles. But if we remember these three simple rules, we can all be champions.

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